When searching for a show to feature for this week’s piece, I used a tried-and-true method for how to find something that a lot of people are interested in. I went on the Apple Podcast app on my phone, clicked ‘Top Charts’, chose ‘Sports’ and looked at what the top show was. To nobody’s surprise the top show listed was Pardon My Take from Barstool Sports. As luck would have it, I was getting in my car to drive my oldest daughter to college, a short hour and forty-five minutes from our house, which happened to be the exact length of the August 2 episode of PMT that I ended up eavesdropping in on.
If you don’t know about Pardon My Take, where have you been? If you haven’t listened to the show, you’re really missing out on a fun listen that probably sounds more like the proverbial ‘guys sitting around talking sports’ than you normally find on terrestrial sports radio. One, you can’t cuss on traditional radio and two, most sports talk radio shows cover a few topics and that is what takes them through their few hours on the air. With this show, you get a potpourri of topics, many takes on those topics and a lot of fun and humor along the way.
From the time Eddy Grant’s Electric Avenue kicks off the show until A-ha’s Take On Me ends it, the show is like walking in on a group of fraternity brothers having a conversation about sports, their lives and more. The format of the show generally follows the same format of hitting current topics, set segments and a featured guest.
On this episode you had the main hosts, Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz and Eric Sollenberger who is simply known as ‘PFT Commenter,’ recording the show the night before as the NFL’s first preseason game was taking place from Canton for the Hall of Fame game. ‘Big Cat’ was watching the game and ‘PFT Commenter’ was somewhere he couldn’t see it, so you had Katz doing some play-by-play of what was happening including the very first kickoff under the new NFL kickoff rules.
“The Hall of Fame game means absolutely nothing, they’ve completely bastardized it where you don’t even get the first stringers playing for a second, but I am not going to let anyone yuck my yum today,” Big Cat said in pointing out that the bottom line is it is August and that means football is back and that makes all right with the world.
The football discussion ranges from new preseason rules to the safety Guardian helmets some of the players wear during training camp to the size of Peyton Manning’s forehead on his Hall of Fame bust and more. Olympics talk focused on how Steve Kerr has used his lineups in men’s basketball to the AI Al Michaels which gives Olympic recaps to why the USA is not better at shooting as well as the French brothers who played each other in table tennis and one of the main Olympics topics, which has been about the women’s boxing and whether or not some of the athletes should be allowed to compete.
This topic is another good example of why this show works so well. The women’s boxing topic is a tough one and could be something that gets hosts in a lot of trouble. There has been a lot of misinformation about the topic and frankly I am someone who can readily admit that I don’t know enough about the background to speak on it. And as ‘juicy’ as this topic could be, these guys pretty much said the same thing. They didn’t know enough of the story to really talk, or joke about it and so that is what they said. While acknowledging it is something people are talking about, they just didn’t want to get into something they didn’t fully understand.
From that topic to the Mt. Rushmore of ‘Dumb Things We Used to Think.’ This is the brilliance of the PMT content. The big sports topics have been hit and now it is on to something completely different. Something that will make the audience think, laugh and if they were like me, they were playing along trying to guess some of the things that would be said and throwing out things like ‘oh, man I forgot about that one!’
Things like Santa Claus, the ability to dig to China, kissing equaling sex, clouds popping water if you touched them, watermelons growing in your stomach if you ate the seeds, the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and what the meaning of the sign ‘Blind Drive’ means were some of the things that came up. Fun topic and again, one where you know the listeners are playing along and having as much fun as the hosts.
Speaking of fun, the featured interview on this particular episode was a big one. While it was recorded several weeks ago, the guys had the chance to talk with actors Matt Damon and Casey Affleck about their upcoming Apple TV movie The Instigators. The PMT guys of course had some fun with having the guys on in the first place, even though it was part of a press junket where the stars were doing several interviews with various outlets to promote the movie. “You guys have been doing a bunch of interviews today…you’re like ‘these two idiots are now interviewing us?’ We don’t know how we got this interview but we’re happy to do it,” ‘Big Cat’ said.
The interview showed the strong reach and love people have for Barstool Sports and Pardon My Take as Damon and Affleck seemed as excited to be on the show as the guys were about having them on. Doing a bunch of interviews in one day is most likely not a whole lot of fun for the actors who are answering the same questions over and over again. With PMT, they clearly had fun, were asked about different subjects and they got to talk Boston sports which as most are aware, gets right to the heart of things for Damon and Affleck.
Whether it was their thoughts on The Dynasty about the Patriots and Bill Belichick, the Tom Brady Roast, the future of the Chicago Bears with Caleb Williams or other topics, the interview was great promotion for the movie and also was a cool way to hear Damon and Affleck be just like most of us when talking about their sports fandom. I found it especially interesting when they wrapped up the interview that again, it almost seemed like the actors were more thankful to the hosts than the hosts were to the famous actors. “Love your show,” Affleck says and Damon affirms as they finish.
One other topic that was brought up during the interview I found incredibly compelling was when Damon talked about an idea he had where Academy Awards are given out 20 years later versus the year films come out. Damon’s point was that we should wait and see what really sticks with an audience and makes an impact over time as opposed to a somewhat immediate reaction. This way, films that catch on well after release or develop a cult like following can get recognized.
The programmer in me thought that might make for great content with other sports shows. Go back and look at awards given out in 2004 and see if they still hold up today.
To end this particular episode the segment was ‘The Fyre Fest of the Week,” which basically is about the bad things that happened to you similar to the disaster that was the Fyre Festival. Then, before shutting it down for the week they finish with their game where they pick a number between 1 and 100 and use a lottery ball machine to select a winning number. This is a tradition done since late August 2020 when ‘Big Cat’ first put the machine in the studio.
Pardon My Take moves quick. It is hilarious and while there are things that you have to listen a lot to understand, a majority of the show you will pick up on immediately. Just some guys having more fun than you can imagine, talking in a relatable manner about subjects that matter to the audience.
If you need a visual for the show, picture the movie ‘Old School’ come to life as a thrice weekly sports and entertainment podcast. That is what Pardon My Take is and why it is consistently at the top of the podcast charts.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
